Chapter 2

Another Side, Another Story:

Impact

William was asleep again, he knew it. He didn't know how he had gone from sitting up and reading, he was far to shaken up by the accident to sleep, to the depths of his dreams. He was once more in the dark and the horrid warmth of being summoned onto Lyoko under XANA's control. He could feel his body straining as he clashed with one of the warriors, Ulrich by his best guess. His shoulders strained as he swung wide to try and bring down his quarry. He could feel the stinging of Odd's laser arrows burying into his calves. He could feel the heat arching through his arms as he deflected one of Aelita's energy fields with his massive sword.

He could feel a jarring in his arms as he swung and struck down one of the warriors. He could feel a rush as he used super smoke to relocate and strike. He could feel an attack deflect off of his shoulder, whose it was he didn't know. His back wrenched as he spun wildly and he could feel the attack connect. He had defeated another warrior. He felt a sick sense of satisfaction as he stood tall. He adjusted his stance and he could feel his hands tensing as they reached out to grasp someone. He could only guess Aelita. He felt himself lift her, he felt her blows against him as she struggled, he could almost hear her screaming as he walked to toss her over the edge of the world.

Then he felt a weightlessness. He was falling, and the sense of satisfaction left him. He knew now that it was XANA's satisfaction, not his own, and it was being replaced with rage. He was falling faster now, and then he struck the sea. He could feel every inch of his body searing as the sea rent him apart and the reassembled him. XANA didn't remove him from Lyoko for a long and agonizing minute. He knew XANA's wrath was unmatched. He screamed in silence until his master relented, and he was once again alone, in the cold and dark.

At least he knew it was only a dream, the ghost of a long forgotten memory.

Aelita forced herself awake, rolling onto the floor of her room. She had reverted time as far as the supercomputer would allow, which sadly put her into the depths of slumber. She staggered, her body still mostly asleep, and slowly rose to her feet. She stumbled forwards and crashed into her closet and grabbed a dress off the rack. She dressed quickly and rubbed her eyes.

She quickly exited the room and moved as quietly as her still mostly asleep body would allow. She stumbled and fell to her knees for a moment. She rose to her feet and continued her trek.

She reached her destination after only a few moments, she knew the route by heart. She stood before his door and raised her hand to knock and then paused. She lowered her hand and took a deep breath. She didn't know what lay behind the door, or if she wanted to. In her mind he was okay. In her mind the return trip had worked without a hitch and he would be sitting behind his desk working on some project that had totally absorbed him. She took another breath, trying in vain to psych herself up enough to knock.

A sharp whisper came snapped her to attention. "Princess." She turned to look and saw Ulrich and Odd walking towards her. "What's going on?"

She shook her head. "I haven't knocked yet. I'm too nervous." She blushed slightly and took a step back.

Odd walked over and knocked lightly once. Then a second time. He then began banging on it with both hands. The door swung open a moment later, to see Jeremie scowling. Her turned around and motioned for them to come in.

They entered and he sat in his desk chair and spun to face them, still scowling. "You used the return program."

They were stunned into silence for a moment. Odd spoke first. "But, you were in the hospital. You were in an accident."

"There wasn't a XANA attack, was there?" Jeremie said, leaning forward. "We can't use the return program for personal gain. That was rule one!" He stood and began pacing.

Ulrich shook his head in disbelief. "You could have died Einstein, we needed to do it."

"Then where do we draw the line?" Jeremie said, continuing to pace, "What if there's a fire? Or if Jim falls off the roof while doing repairs, do we use it then?" He sat down and leaned forward, resting his face in his hands. "The rule was that we would only use it when XANA attacked, and even then, only when we needed it."

Aelita stood and walked towards him. "But Jeremie…"

He stood and started shouting. "But nothing. We had a set of rules, and you broke them. I'm going to go shut down the supercomputer, again, and see if I can make sure it stays that way." He stood and stormed out, despite the assembled group's protests.

The door slammed shut and for a long time they were silent. "Well," Odd said sheepishly, "that didn't go the way I thought it would. I was kinda expecting a tear filled admission of some sort."

Ulrich shot him a dark look. "We should go after him, he's upset and not thinking clearly." Aelita stood, totally stunned, for a few moments and then collapsed down onto Jeremie's bed. Ulrich stood. "I'll go after him," He leaned next to Odd for a moment and whispered, "keep an eye on princess for me." Odd nodded and Ulrich made his way out into the hall.

Ulrich ran as quickly as he could, trying to catch up with Jeremie. How the computer genius had not only gotten ahead of him, but was managing to stay ahead of him, Ulrich would never know, but he did.

He continued his run and arrived at the sewer entrance and descended. Jeremie's scooter was missing, they had elected to leave their transports there, though none of them spoke as to why.

Ulrich leapt onto his skateboard and sped off into the depths of the sewer. He continued his trek grunting along the way. "I forgot how badly it smelled down here, it's been too long." He rolled rapidly and leapt across a gap, and then skidded to a stop. He could hear Jeremie's scooter in the distance and then sped off after him.

He arrived at the sewer's exit and spotted Jeremie's scooter resting at the base of the ladder. He climbed the ladder, taking a calming breath half way up, and exited the sewer. The lid was left to the side, Jeremie must have known he was being followed. Ulrich took a running leap and grabbed the rope that was waiting for him. He swung down hard and rolled to a stop, groaning as he stood. He ran to the elevator and punched in the control code. A loud clunk informed him it was in motion, and another informed him it had stopped.

There was a hissing noise as he stepped into the control room and saw Jeremie typing furiously, and then he slammed his hands onto the keys and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

Ulrich walked over to him and attempted in vain to get his attention. "Hey, Jeremie, what you did back there was really rude man." He looked over Jeremie's shoulder, "Hey, I'm talking to you…" He trailed off as he watched the screen flash and shift as Jeremie worked his magic.

He shouted wordlessly as a large red exclamation mark blinked on the screen. He pulled his glasses off and rubbed them, and when he replaced them he finally spoke. "I just don't understand it." He rotated the chair, stood and began pacing around the room. "When I got here I went down to the computer level, but the panel that houses the main shutoff was welded shut. More than that even, it was like it was totally flush, like it was a solid slab of metal. On top of that I couldn't pull the blasted power cell out, it was even there." He continued pacing. "It is running on something, but I can't find it. And when I came up here I found the shutdown codes I installed no longer function. And now the lockdown programs aren't working, you were able to just take the elevator down here. And the super scan is on the blink. It keeps detecting activated towers in the ice sector, but it's not locating them." He paused for a moment and shock passed over his face. "And I yelled at Aelita." He collapsed back into his chair and held his head in his hands.

Ulrich watched him for a moment. "Wait, you said something about activated towers?" Jeremie didn't answer, and the console continued to beep loudly. "Hey, listen to me. What did you say about towers?"

Jeremie looked up, "The super scan," He turned to the console and clicked a few keys, "it keeps saying that there's an activated tower in the ice sector." He tapped a few keys and the super scan popped up. It flashed several times, showing a tower activated, however before the scan could pinpoint its exact location it flicked off, and another tower activated. "It keeps flitting between the towers in the sector."

Ulrich nodded sharply, "Alright then, send me to Lyoko."

"What?"

"Yeah, send me to Lyoko, while I'm there I can follow the pulsations to the activated tower."

"I guess that could work, but are you sure? Its been a long time. We should call the rest of the gang if we're going to do this?"

"If there's an activated tower we may not have enough time, you call everyone else, I'll go check it out."

Jeremie shook his head. "But, what I don't understand is that XANA is dead. Aelita's father stopped him." He ran his fingers though his hair again. "This just doesn't make sense." The console abruptly stopped beeping and Jeremie swung his chair around. "The super scan, it stopped. There's no more activated tower. I just don't understand it. Something is wrong."

Ulrich crossed his arms, "Well then, send me and I'll look around."

"It's to risky. The system is way too buggy." He tapped a few keys and the consul went dark. "I'll try to reset it again, but we'll look into it more tomorrow."

Ulrich just shrugged, "Alright Einstein, we'll fix one problem at a time. Come on, you need to go apologize to Princess."

Jeremie blushed slightly. "Yeah, you're right," a sudden realization dawned on him, "but I need to make a stop first."

A series of sparks signaled the sealing of the elevator door as the children made their assent. The consul, left dorment for a moment by Jeremie's meddling, blinked to life. A stream of code danced across its surface, and a small window opened.

Execute command: Lyoko Keys.

Error 12054203: Insufficient power. Cannot comply.

Execute command: Spawn Polymorphic Specter.

Error 12054203: Insufficient power. Cannot comply.

Execute command: Power Transference: Reserve to Main.

Error 1005314: Reserve Empty.

Execute command: Lyoko Tower Activation Protocol

Tower Activated

Execute command: Lyoko Tower Activation: Subroutine: Spawn Polymorphic Specter.

Error 12054203: Insufficient power. Cannot comply.

Execute command: Lyoko Tower Activation: Subroutine: Homo-Saipan Mental Override.

Error 12054203: Insufficient power. Cannot comply.

Execute command: Lyoko Tower Activation: Subroutine: Weather Manipulation

Tower Subroutine Engaged.

Access Dossier: Kadic Academy Students.

A series of folders flashed across the screen, filting rapidly between students, until finally coming to rest upon a chosen profile.

Target Aquired: Kadic Academy Student: Ameila Solovieff.

A surge of power, a crack of thunder and then silence fell throughout the facility. Slowly the lights dimmed, needing to conserve as much power as possible. Eventually the only light remaining was a simple red glow from the consol, eminating from a strange red symbol that would fill the children with dread.

The Eye of XANA burned into the darkness all around it.